Berthoud Brewing Co. logo / Courtesy of Berthoud Brewing Co.

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Follow the Brew Trail

Northern Colorado’s brewery count continues to rise as a Fort Collins restaurant is starting to brew its own beer and a brewpub is in the works for Berthoud next summer.

Pitchers Sports Restaurant, 1100 W. Drake Road, is now brewing its own beer.

The restaurant previously brewed all of its beer at its Greeley brewery, however the Fort Collins’ restaurant recently added its own brewing system to meet local demand.

The restaurant is now brewing three beers in Fort Collins with plans to brew its entire line of beers here in the future, said restaurant co-manager Jenn Grdina. In the next few weeks Grdina said all beers would be brewed on site in Fort Collins.

Grdina referred further questions about the new brewery to the restaurant’s owner. A Pitchers representative who answered the phone Tuesday said the owner had no comment.

With Pitchers brewing beer, Fort Collins now has 10 breweries with the 11th, Black Bottle Brewing, looking to open by Dec. 1.

Another new brewpub on tap is the Berthoud Brewing Co.

Shawn Fitzgerald, 41, of Berthoud, is looking to take his classic session home brews to market with the new 10-barrel brewery.

While Fitzgerald is currently in talks with the city to find a location, he tentatively plans to open the new brewpub in summer 2013.

“We will ease into it slowly,” he said. “We want to make sure it is sustainable and employs locally and draws people into Berthoud.”

The brewpub will have five beers on tap at all times. Fitzgerald said he brews session ales and lower hop beers that are easy to drink. He plans to offer a British pale ale, a red ale, porters and some light beers to transition Miller and Coors drinkers to microbrews. Fitzgerald said he also has some specialty beers such as a Scottish ale and chili beer.

One unique business plan is to offer “wedding beers,” which would be one-time small batches people could buy for their wedding party, said Fitzgerald, who has done a wedding beer for a friend.

A Web architect with Agilent, Fitzgerald plans to keep his day job while brewing at night.

Berthoud Brewing Co. will be Berthoud’s second brewery in addition to City Star Brewing.